A 13.3% decline in like-for-like revenue at its Glanbia Performance Nutrition (GPN) unit didn't take away from what was a 'resilient' performance for food group Glanbia in 2020, the company has said.
Announcing its full-year results for the year to 2 January 2021, the group said that it 'navigated COVID-19 well', posting a 1.8% increase in revenue on a like-for-like basis.
Revenue of €3.82 billion was up 0.6% on a constant currency basis, or down 1.4% on a reported basis.
'Resilience'
"Throughout the pandemic, we lived our purpose and our values, delivering essential, nutritious food during the most challenging of circumstances and proving the resilience of our business," commented Siobhán Talbot, Glanbia group managing director.
"We delivered on our priorities of protecting our people, continuing the supply of food and maintaining our strong financial position. We kept our operations running safely with the aid of enhanced health and safety measures. Our business portfolio delivered a robust operating performance supported by our swift and decisive actions which resulted in improving trends across the group in the second half of the year."
Business Performance
Its Glanbia Nutritionals (GN) arm was the key driver of its revenue performance, rising by 10.0% on a like-for-like basis. Glanbia Performance Nutrition on the other hand was 'impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, in particular in Q2', the business said.
On the performance of GN, Talbot said, "GN delivered a good performance versus prior year as the majority of its end-market demand was sustained throughout 2020 and it continued to execute its strategic growth agenda."
With regard to GPN, she added that COVID restrictions "caused significant disruption to International markets and the North American specialty and distributor channels.
"However we maintained our focus on the key transformation programme with revenue and margin trends both improving in the second half of the year."
The group reported a 22.6% decline in pre-exceptional EBITA for the year, which it linked to challenges associated with COVID-19.
Glanbia added it is now in 'a strong financial position' with net debt reduced by €120.4 million compared to the previous year, to €493.9 million. A share buyback programme of up to €50 million was launched in the final quarter of 2020, and is 'ongoing' in 2021.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
